With approximately 130 lawyers, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Litigation Section is powerful in both size and substance. Buchanan trial lawyers have a proven track record of success and a dedication to excellence in client service.

We have participated in many complex high-profile cases in state and federal courts as well as before administrative agencies. We have substantial experience in the defense of class action law suits, including multidistrict litigations. In addition to our significant appellate practice, we regularly utilize arbitration and mediation as alternative strategies to litigation.

Our trial lawyers are known in the courts, bar associations and honorary societies. Six of our attorneys are members of the American College of Trial Lawyers and two of our litigators are members of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. They are also recognized by clients and peers in national publications including Chambers' "Leaders in Their Field," Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers® magazine, "Top Up and Comers," "Rising Stars" and "Legal Eagles."

We have pursued a client-focused strategy to ensure that we have, and continue to develop, lawyers with concentrated knowledge in specific fields who can provide the most value to our clients and our team.

Our Litigation Section primarily focuses on the following practice areas:

• Antitrust and trade regulation
• Commercial litigation
• Environmental and toxic tort litigation
• Franchise and distribution
• General liability
• Insurance and reinsurance 
• Minerals, natural resources and energy litigation
• Products liability and mass tort
• Securities litigation
• White-collar defense and investigations
• Government contracts litigation
  

Following are a few recent cases that illustrate the strength and breadth of Buchanan's Litigation Section.

• Secured a victory for client Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. in a hotly contested misappropriation of trade secrets/unfair competition/raiding case. After 15 days of arbitration, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) panel sitting in San Francisco denied all of the claims arising from the departure of four brokers and a sales assistant and their subsequent employment at Stifel. The win provided a full defense verdict and also granted Stifel Nicolaus more than $900,000 in attorneys' fees and assessing all forum costs against the plaintiff.
• Obtained a complete trial victory for client Cook Composites and Polymers in a five-week federal jury trial stemming from a $405 million lawsuit filed by Viking Yacht Company and Post Marine.
• Won a fraud claim on behalf of Severstal Wheeling, formerly Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, and collected a jury verdict that exceeded $267 million, including $100 million in punitive damages.
  
• Secured a trial victory over the U.S. Department of Justice before the United States Court of International Trade in a significant case for Fujifilm Imaging Colorants, formerly Avecia, Inc., that saved the client millions of dollars in import duties.
• Defended a technology client in federal court litigation in the District of New Jersey over the terms of a license agreement — after we defeated a motion to dismiss our client's fraud counterclaims, completed discovery, and filed a motion for summary judgment, the adverse party increased offer to purchase company from $12 million stock and cash to $35 million all cash, resulting in settlement and sale.
• Retained to represent a multinational energy corporation in a civil and criminal regulatory investigation being conducted by a state attorney general and a state branch of the Department of Environmental Protection.
• Defended a major multinational chemical manufacturing company in ongoing federal and state antitrust class action litigation, and opt-out lawsuits, challenging its pricing and business activities in the sale of plastics additives, hydrogen peroxide, methyl-methacrylate and polymethyl-methacrylate to customers across North America.
• Handled multimillion-dollar design and construction litigation on behalf of a large university involving a new facility that experienced significant structural and design complications just a few years after completion.
• Successfully arbitrated a lengthy FINRA matter for our client Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. All plaintiffs' claims were defeated and treble damages were obtained on defendants' counterclaims, as well as an award of $1.1 million in attorneys' fees plus the costs for the arbitration that took place over a period of 40 days of arbitration in Charleston, South Carolina. In addition, the panel granted defendants' request that the plaintiff be ordered to advise the federal court of certain misrepresentations that had been made in the underlying injunction proceedings.
  
• Represented a former executive of Collins & Aikman, a now-bankrupt auto parts supplier, in connection with a securities class action suit in Michigan as well as an SEC and criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
• Won a victory for Fairmont Capital Advisors against Henry V. Sciortino, executive director of the Pittsburgh Intergovernmental Cooperation Association, on claims of conversion, unjust enrichment and tortious interference with contract. The jury's unanimous verdict was the largest handed down in West Chester County in 2006.
• Retained by approximately 20 major mushroom producers to defend individual and class-action antitrust claims filed by supermarkets and other food retailers alleging overcharges on more than 400 million pounds of mushrooms sold annually by the producers.